Roger, who else, to pass from Morales, of course, signed possibly the most relevant goal in the history of Levante; perhaps only those goals that gave the club promotion to First were more important than last night. Levante reached the semifinals of the Copa del Rey for the first time in its 111-year history. Roger's goal, in the 120th minute of the game, left a Villarreal who found his martyrdom in Cárdenas and in Roger, his executioner.
Paco López, surely, would amaze his fans with his eleven, although his reading was a teacher. Levante played one of the most important games in its history and did so from the beginning without Roger, Morales, or Melero … Up to eight changes with respect to his pike in Flanders against Madrid. But Paco, at first, wanted to bet on those who had taken him so far and as a refreshment, to the legends. After all, they are all Paco's men.
Emery, who took his first disappointment as coach of Villarreal, He used the best he had available, perhaps stating that the Basque came to Villarreal thinking of playing metal and last night said goodbye to the nearest road. His only unforced bet was that of Pedraza and due to the performance of the Cordovan, he was right.
Paco López proposed one more party of containment, that of Silla wanted to make it long and gradually call up his artillery; Emery wanted his team to play what it knows, possession. Beyond proposals, the staging was frantic. In two minutes they had each had their chance. Dani Gómez did not reach a center by Bardhi by a hair and Cárdenas took out, with as many reflexes as difficulties, a point-blank shot from Pau Torres.
After that give and take of opening chances, the game went silent. The yellow ones had the ball, although almost always where the granotas did not mind having it. Albiol got tired of touching the ball and Alcácer, of seeing it pass. Villarreal without Gerard Moreno is more mundane and predictable. Trigueros and Moi appeared from grapes to pears and only generated danger due to Emery's strategy in corners and side fouls. Only there did Levante suffer, a team that did not lose the place, but also did not find spaces to do damage. Until the break, a shot from Dani García and that's it.
Cárdenas, thanks to whom Levante went to the round in Fuenlabrada, allowed the bench effect to have the meaning that Paco López was looking for. The goalkeeper, the best of his team, in the game in general, prevented Alcácer from celebrating a goal three months later in minute 49 '. Thus, for Cárdenas, the game was still in a draw when Morales, Miramón, Melero, Roger and then Clrer entered the scene.
With them, Levante went on to play their classic 4-4-2; for them Emery threw his own a few meters back. There the domain was balanced. But the yellows closed the spaces well and the only intervention that Rulli had to make was a wrong shot by Pedraza. Villarreal arrived at minute 90 in the rival field, moment in which Cárdenas avoided Parejo's goal after a free kick and Postigo, under the sticks, took the rejection of Baena, avoiding the elimination of Levante, giving way to the extension and unknowingly assisting Roger to make history. In extra time, only two remarkable things happened, a penalty that Soto Grado whistled but that González Fuertes left him, with good reason, in a foul outside the area, and that goal in the 120th minute by Roger. Story that you made.